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A new assisted living facility may be coming to North St. Paul

Aundrea Kinney/Review • The city-owned, two-acre lot near the corner of Highway 36 and Century Avenue in North St. Paul may be purchased in the coming months. If the sale works out, construction could begin this spring on an assisted living facility, which would bring about 25 new jobs to the city.

North St. Paul’s Commerce Park site sparked interest recently with a company looking to develop it into a new assisted living facility.

The Commerce Park property is the site of the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District’s former bus garage. It’s located near the Highway 36 and Century Avenue intersection and adjacent to Anchor Bank and Century Collision.

Paul Ammerman, North St. Paul’s community development director, explained in a recent interview that LGSC North St. Paul LLC is moving to purchase the city-owned property, and has proposed a 32-unit, high acuity assisted living facility that would bring about 25 new jobs.

Ammerman explained that the facility would offer a higher level of care than what is currently offered at Polar Ridge Senior Living on Helen Street.

He added that city staff hope the new facility will be a catalyst for additional retail and housing opportunities in the area as well as bolstering business in the downtown area.

“[The devloper is] saying that they have a lot of health vendors that come and go from the facility as well as relatives and family, so we hope that there’s some connectivity to that business and to some increased activity in the downtown area,” Ammerman said.

This time last year, a different company, Inland Development Partners, was looking to acquire the roughly two-acre Commerce Park site in addition to several adjacent, privately owned properties to build two, four-story apartment buildings.

According to Ammerman, the company backed out when it was unable to strike a mutually agreeable deal with the adjacent property owners.

He explained that it is unlikely LGSC will be stopped by the same deadlock, because the company only needs the city-owned site to complete its proposed project.

So far, the city has expressed its interest in the project by offering a letter of intent, and Ammerman said that work on a formal purchase agreement is underway.

“So far so good,” Ammerman noted, adding that if everything goes as planned, construction could begin this spring. The owners of LGSC North St. Paul LLC could not be reached for comment.